Mr Irwin's Message

Hello families and welcome to this week’s newsletter!

We’re now entrenched in Term One with a number of busy weeks ahead of the lead-in to Easter.

Parent’s Club

Did you know our Parents' Club play an important role in running a number of wellbeing and fundraising events for students throughout the year? In previous years this has included lunch orders days, stalls for Mother’s and Father’s Day and fundraisers.

As a constituted entity the Parents' Club year always commences with an Annual General Meeting to elect office bearers for the year. However, it’s also just as important to get as many interested and able families as possible to assist with the range of days and events our Parents' Club have.

Our Parents' Club Annual General Meeting will be held this Thursday morning at 9:15am in the Mudbrick. If you are interested in assisting this year in our Parents' Club in any way this year, it would be great to have your attendance on Thursday morning. If you are interested in helping throughout the year but are unable to attend on Thursday morning you can register your interest by emailing the school at teesdale.ps@education.vic.gov.au.

NAPLAN

NAPLAN Testing commences next week for year 3 and 5 students. Over the course of a two-week period from Next Wednesday, students will complete standardised testing in the following areas; Writing, Reading, Language Conventions and Numeracy. NAPLAN receives mixed reviews about its value in the press. I’ve always maintained that as a measure of individual students, it’s one of the many assessments we use to form a judgment about a child’s progress.

It’s completely human for students to have a great day on a test and surpass expectations, and likewise for things not to go to plan and them not show their full potential. That’s why it’s important to temper the results of one test accordingly. However, from a school perspective there is real value in monitoring the progress of cohorts and the work teachers are doing for students when looking at our success for cohorts of students. This is a terrific way to validate the work we are doing in the space of teaching and learning and set future direction moving forward. Best wishes to all students participating in NAPLAN over the next few weeks, but please be reassured NAPLAN shouldn’t be viewed as a test that strictly defines your child’s academic progress.

House Athletics

In Term 1 we host our House Athletics carnival, which generally happens at Don Wallace Reserve. This year, due to the commencement of clubroom upgrades we have to run a modified Athletics Carnival at school. Due to our site limitations, we will split the students into two groups to run this.

On Monday afternoon of the 25th of March, Foundation and Junior school students will compete in their events. Middle and Senior School students will compete in their events on Thursday March 28th, concluding at our final assembly. The work around of venue will call for some modified events, however, we’re happy to manage this for one year given the exciting improvements being made at Don Wallace Reserve! From this event there will still be the chance for selected students to represent the school at the Flinders Athletics Carnival later in the year.

Bye for Now!

School's Fire Risk and Preparations

Please see important communication attached outlining the school's preparations for the bushfire season.

OSH Bookings & Cancellations

A friendly reminder to families using the OSH Service, all bookings must be made by 5pm the night before to ensure staffing, food and activities are adequately resourced. Due to the service running at or near capacity each day, a place may not be available on the day.

All bookings must be made via the Community OSH Portal or email admin@commosh.edu.au

Cancellations can be made by via the Portal, in person or SMS 0448 674 516.

For further information about the service, please visit Teesdale Primary School's Community OSH website.

Support Learning With Healthy Lunch Options

For further information go to: Healthy lunchboxes | Healthy Eating Advisory Service

Classroom News

Around the Classrooms

Bravehearts Incursion - Foundation